Cherished Hearts
by ghostiprince
Summary: A little inside look at Lavi and Road's interactions after Lavi is captured by the Noah.


On top of the idea of a parasite from some guy's eyeball-y tongue inside him, he had bruises all over and maybe a fractured rib or two. This was pointless pain, or maybe Sheryl just liked to knock him around to let off steam; if that were it then Lavi would blow a gasket. Why did he have to be used as the human punching bag?

Lavi knew, rather believed, that Panda-jiji would never talk. Also by now he would be a bit angry if Bookman spilled the beans; he would have suffered for nothing, and could possibly suffer for nothing if these beatings continued.

He was human, not some fancy super human like Yuu or Allen who had speedy healing abilities. His ribs would take, in the best case, one month to heal. A grunt left his lips as he shifted his position to lean against the wall. Even the slightest of movements were painful, but he managed. This prison cell was small, but right now, to the beaten up redhead, it seemed huge. Maybe being stuck in one spot all day was messing with his mind or maybe it was the head trauma from one too many blows to his noggin.

He bristled at the first cold touch of the wall, but soon eased back till he was completely against the wall, using it as support. For a moment Lavi wondered how he looked to others right now, probably pretty sad. He felt that his right eye was swollen, his legs were shaking, his once nice exorcist uniform was in shreds, and he had plenty of cuts amd scratch marks all along his back, chest, neck, and arms.

A weak laugh slipped from his chapped lips; why did he even care about appearances at a time like this? Did it even matter? It did not, but the thought did bring a brief and tired smile to his face.

"That's the first smile I've seen from you in a while."

The sweet ring of the familiar voice jolted Lavi from his pain induced tiredness. Despite the immense pain it caused, he looked around frantically for the owner of that voice. He had been thrown against one hundred sixty-two walls over the owner of this candy-coated voice.

"Road, where are you?" His voice was scratchy and hoarse from lack of anything to drink. Still he called out urgently to her, his voice cracking and fading to a whisper soon after.

"I'm right here, silly booooy." And as she said, Road stood in front of Lavi in all her Noah glory. She looked unharmed and quite pleased with herself. Did she find his sad predicament funny? Probably...

Road sat down next to Lavi, the skirt of her white petal dress sitting neatly on the floor. She leaned in and examined Lavi's wounds. He was too sore to move, so he let her do as she pleased. Her fingers ghosted across his skin, lightly pressing against his bruises and cuts, eliciting a hiss from between clenched teeth. Lavi could have sworn that he saw her silently giggle at his pained expressions.

"Easy there Princess," croaked an injures Lavi, "Don't be so rough with me."

She raised an eyebrow and smirked. That wasn't a welcoming sign to Lavi, though little to none of Road's gleeful expressions ever spelled good luck for him.

"What are you thinking-" Now his voice really would be sore. A cry of pain slipped from Lavi's thin chapped lips. Even his scream was gravely. His body locked up and his head flew back, colliding with the brick wall of his cell.

As his voice faded to a coarse whimper Lavi's body relaxed and he slumped against the brick wall. Before he could even take a glance to where the pain originated from, he felt something warm trickling down the side of his back and chest, and down his left arm. Soon his nostrils were filled with the smell of iron, and his mouth could taste salty tears. Lavi hadn't realized that he was crying.

Slowly his gaze turned to rest on deep, gaping wound near his neck. The initial throat tearing pain was gone and replaced with an odd tingle. Lavi realized the nerves had been severed; he could no longer feel most of his left side. His body had gone into shock and most of his muscles refused to respond no matter how hard he willed them too. All Lavi could do was be a silent on-looker of Road's doings.

He simply slouched there, using the wall as support for his helpless body as he slowly bled out onto the ground. His single emerald eye followed Road, who had gotten up and was now in his full line of vision. In her right hand was the weapon: a bloodied candle.

"Think of that as a welcome back present," cooed Road as she licked some of his blood from the candle's pointed end. Lavi couldn't help the shiver that ran through his body at the sight.

Lavi couldn't quite grasp what she meant as a welcome back present. It's not like being here was something he did often or even any times before now; and present entailed that it was for him not her though she was the one coming back. Lavi quickly let the thought slip his blurred mind, it would be useless to try and figure out Road's reasoning; she never made much sense.

A sharp pain screamed through his dulled senses. Lavi then noticed the pressure his fresh wound. It came to his attention that Road was hugging him. This seemed like a complete opposite compared to five seconds before when she stabbed him.

Road pulled back with a grin plastered across her angelically demonic features. This either meant more stabbing or...more stabbing. Maybe there was another meaning, but his brain wasn't working at one hundred percent right now, and due to the previous trauma he was on the subject of stabbing and impaling via sharpened candles.

"Don't look so confused, Junior. And here I thought you were the smart one," said Road with a sigh.

What did she mean by that? Obviously he was missing something here, or maybe she just wanted to trick him. If it had been anyone else Lavi would have no problem reading into the meaning of their words and expressions, but with Road he was always lost or lead in circles. She really was a challenge, figuratively and literally.

After a good minute of a half of Lavi internally debating the meaning of Road she interrupted him. She looked fed up with his constant analyzing. "Stop over thinking things that don't matter. Aren't you curious as to why I'm here?"

Collecting himself, Lavi willed himself to at least give a verbal reply. He managed a soft yet snarky "Yeah." He really needed to let his injured throat heal. Lavi had tore his throat muscles and pulled his vocal cords.

"That's better," commented Road as if she expected him to reply verbally, despite knowing that she cause his voice to be in such shambles.

By now Lavi knew the whole story of Road's disappearance; after all he had to listen to Sheryl moan and groan about it for the past five weeks. That guy had a serious daughter complex and probably should go get checked out by a psychiatrist.

Lavi knew she had disappeared after going to rescue Allen. He distinctively remembered how angry and worried Sheryl was about Road encountering some crazy Innocence monster that was out to destroy Allen. Also she had protected Allen which is why she had faded away. That was the gist of the story anyway.

"You probably heard from Sheryl about me fading, but don't worry I'm back now. And don't worry I'm not going anywhere any time soon, so you wont have to miss me anymore."

It was oddly comforting to Lavi to hear it straight from her, though at the same time it was quite frightening to know as well. Then his thoughts turned to Allen; was the little moyashi okay? Or was he being gutted and interrogated by the Noah? Lavi didn't have time to dwell on that thought.

"Well I'll be going then."

Road's voice broke Lavi away from his train of thought. Unable to reply verbally, Lavi tried to silently ask why. It wouldn't be good if she just left him there to bleed out; the least she could do would be tell someone. He would rather let Noah bandage him up than sitting in a pool of his own rusting blood.

She seemed to get what he wanted to say since she said, "I think Wisely will be around to get you some bandaids soon."

He croaked a sigh in relief at her answer. Though the ambiguous time worried him a bit. Lavi couldn't feel or see his side so he didn't know how bloodied up he looked, or how long he had till he completely bled out.

A jingle of metal and the tap of heeled shoes notified Lavi of Road's departure. He groaned and found himself dozing off slightly. This should have turned alarms off, but he was too tired to be thinking this as a bad thing. Lavi slowly let himself get lulled into a sleepy trance.


End file.
